about us : how Wayfarer began

How Wayfarer Began

The story of how Wayfarer began is more than the story of two individuals. It is the story of countless interchanges, years and people. The full details could never be listed in this brief a summary, and the influences on this story go far beyond those named here. This story is one of untold hundreds and thousands who have impacted the lives of two families, who, linked together by a sense of calling, began a journey toward God that continues today.

David Rhodes and Chad Norris met in 1996 while working at Crosspoint Christian Sports Camp. From the beginning, it was obvious to them that God was uniting them to do ministry together. Their passions had similar clarity, their gifts were complimentary and their sense of brotherhood was much like that of David and Jonathan in the Bible. This spiritual bond began as David and Chad served together that summer and grew from there. The two recent college graduates decided to attend seminary together, and God directed them to Beeson Divinity School .

David and Chad moved to Birmingham , Alabama , in the spring of 1997. David and Chad were soon joined by their lifelong companions Kim Steele ( Rhodes ) and Wendy Nalls (Norris). Their experiences at the beginning of seminary were much like those that many have. David and Chad expected to step into Canaan but instead found themselves in the middle of the desert. This desert experience led them to seek out two people as mentors in their lives. The first was Rick Ousley, the pastor at The Church at Brook Hills. At a time when David and Chad were dying of thirst, Rick provided spiritual nurture and bonding as the three met to talk about God and ministry. Those conversations led Chad and David to work experiences at The Church at Brook Hills and at Student Life camps. Both have had a tremendous impact on how David and Chad understand ministry.

Their second mentor, Dr. Robert Smith, Jr., acted like a father in ministry to David and Chad . Over a three-year period, David and Chad sat under Dr. Smith's teaching and were changed forever. Dr. Smith opened David's and Chad 's eyes to the preaching event, taught them about different traditions in preaching and challenged them to understand the need for doctrine and theology in the Christian life. Through countless classes and after-class discussions, David and Chad were convinced that a sense of balance between relevance and theology was essential to the formation of the next generation of believers.

The study of such balance led David and Chad to the life of Helmut Thielicke, a German theologian and pastor who lived during Hitler's reign. His story powerfully depicts the pain and struggle of following Christ in the face of the Nazi regime. Thielicke's life was marked by an overwhelming desire to know God. He was formally educated at an early age but remained a “real” person as he ministered to normal people in the middle of a war. He was a wayfarer. In his autobiography Notes From a Wayfarer , Thielicke writes, “We are admittedly only guests on this beautiful planet, wayfarers on call and with sealed orders in which the day and hour of our departure are recorded. … The land to which we are called is a terra incognita - an unknown, even inconceivable land. There is only one voice that we will recognize there because it is already familiar to us here: the voice of the Good Shepherd.” David and Chad were captivated by this man and his life. Their study of Thielicke was a culmination of what had been brewing in their hearts for four years.

Gradually, God began to open David's and Chad 's eyes to what they were supposed to do. The summer before their last semester at Beeson, God did some incredible things in their lives as they spoke and ministered in different places. Without knowing it, they began to have a burden for the same things. David began to sense that God was leading him to travel and speak to young people and also to lead a group of young adults in a spiritual journey. As David sensed this calling, Chad was going through the same process. They realized God was birthing something, but it was hard for them to identify it. As that summer came to an end, David and Chad met and shared what had been going on with them individually. Chad told David that he felt God wanted him to start a Bible study for young adults that would take them on a journey similar to the one they had experienced with Dr. Smith. David smiled and said God had laid the same burden on him. In their excitement, they began to plan for this Bible study to start as soon as possible. They thought it would take place in Birmingham , but God had other ideas.

After a long period of time marked by some frustration, David and Chad went to the E.K. Bailey expository preaching conference in Dallas , Texas . During the 10-hour drive to the conference, David and Chad asked God to tell them what to do. They expected a word from God during the conference but were disappointed at the end because they had not heard God speak to them. On the drive back to Birmingham , David decided to play one of the message tapes from the conference. The preacher happened to be their seminary mentor, Dr. Robert Smith. As David and Chad listened to that sermon a second time, God spoke as clear as a bell. Through that sermon, David and Chad realized the time had come to begin their ministry together. It was time to begin what God had already burdened them to do.

The birth of the vision led to the question of where the ministry should take place. David and Chad asked God to tell them where to go. Over the next couple of weeks, the two of them felt God leading them to Upstate South Carolina. David and Chad decided to ask God for two things: that their wives would have jobs working together for a ministry, and that there would be a group of people who shared their vision and welcomed them. God answered both of these requests, and David, Kim , Chad and Wendy decided to move to Spartanburg , South Carolina . Upward Unlimited, a ministry organization, was hiring an event coordinator and a marketing specialist, and Kim and Wendy fit the exact descriptions of what Upward was looking for. God also provided the two families with places to live. God spoke and provided, and the two families followed, beginning the journey and adventure of a lifetime.